The deaths come ahead of a visit by a high-level Indian political delegation, headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, that is set to arrive in the volatile region on Monday (today), as the government grapples for a response to the unrest.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Indian occupation forces, in their fresh acts of state terrorism, killed four innocent Kashmiri youth in Bandipore district.
These youth were martyred in Panar and Dardpora areas of the district. Earlier, a trooper was killed in an attack in Panar.
Four more Kashmiri youth, who were injured in the firing of Indian police and troops during the recent anti-India demonstrations at different places, succumbed to their injuries in various hospitals. Protests began in June and have escalated in the past week.
The 22-year-old woman died in northern Sopore town when paramilitary forces opened fire, said a police officer who declined to be named.
Her elder brother told AFP that she was not part of a protest and was in her garden when she was shot. “She bled to death on the way to hospital as we were stopped at ten checkpoints,” he said.
Forty civilians have been killed in the last week, including the latest deaths, with a total of 111 protesters and bystanders dead - most of them young men and teenagers - in more than three months of unrest.
Hundreds poured onto the streets Sunday, holding noisy anti-India and pro-independence demonstrations, according to residents reached by phone in Baramulla, Pulwama and Anantnag towns.
The fact-finding mission, the first major initiative by the Indian government to try to defuse tensions, suffered a setback when the veteran APHC leader leading the demonstrations, Syed Ali Geelani, said he would not cooperate.
